Anniversary Waltz (more of a Wander) through France (1 Viewer)

[DavidG58]

Lovely welcome here at Park Verger, thank you Frank and Lisa

bumped into Sue @dippingatoe, always nice to meet new funsters

Been down to Dino's, arrived early apparently the French don't eat till 7, well we were looking forward to our pizza and Sue obliged by turning on the ovens early, a great meal was had, salad starter to appease the chef, then pizza

We had a period of more than 4 hours without rain earlier today, just ended with a hail shower here, I know it is only February but give us a break

Blayes tomorrow, we are following the best ever aires thread with great interest, and aim to see a couple more before our return

oh and Ken @Munchie if you don't appear at the bread van in the morning I will be round to see you before we go

 

[Munchie]

Great be nice to meet. Have to be before 10am as we are off to market then with Ber09 Bernie n Rona!

 

[dippingatoe]

And very nice to meet you two and your lovely dog also

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[TheCaller]

I have today had a serious lesson in Bevs interpretation of map work

Map story sounds familiar! Highlight marker along the whole route & still doesn't know where we are.

 

[DavidG58]

Well we have driven about 600 miles south from home, not really expecting much improvement in the weather, but I was not expecting snow here at Parc Verger, 3C and snow , what is that all about?

just took Lola out, boy is it dark here, didn't take a torch and at one point after letting Lola off her lead had no idea where she was, she is black which doesn't help, but hardly small, so I stood like a plum calling her, stood in middle of the road outside camp site in case a car came, (pretty unlikely until day break I would guess) eventually she shoved her nose up to my hand, I reckon she had been there for ages, getting fed up with me shouting her name and wanting to go back , you cant see 3' in front of you without a torch

 

[DavidG58]

must start the day with a massive thanks to Adam @Addie motorhome wifi, sorted my non problem with our iBoost, took a few emails and PM's, but then found as usual another operator error, Adam had said it sounds like a password issue, sure was I cant believe I fell for the wrong spelling of Parc, I know we are in France but park should have a K at the end

All sorted, thank you



Back to today, snow didn't come to much but can be seen on MH roof, and it was only 1.5C when we got up

note hole in bumper, ref earlier threads, no further damage found from other arboreal assaults

lovely sunny day, @Munchie Ken and Steph and @Ber090 (forgotten your names already sorry ) wee slightly delayed by morning chat. but have now headed off to market, we may have to follow on now Bev knows where they have gone

I have tried to convince her that there may be a market in Blaye tomorrow, (well there might be ) that is our destination for today, looking forward to a drive in the sun with no wind

Time to dump tanks and move on ...........

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[scousebird]

Blaye market days are Wednesday & Saturday according to TI website

 

[DavidG58]

Blaye market days are Wednesday & Saturday according to TI website

Like from me, but share the irony of the 'funny' from @gus-lopez

Oh well theres always somewhere else

 

[scousebird]

Like from me, but share the irony of the 'funny' from @gus-lopez

Oh well theres always somewhere else

Are you a market dodger then?

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[Mousy]

Hi David, just book yourself onto a huge rally....bound to be a gold Hymer there....you could try a stealth attack on their tow eye

 

[funflair]

Hi David, just book yourself onto a huge rally....bound to be a gold Hymer there....you could try a stealth attack on their tow eye

Or a Silver one and get it painted.

Watch out, out there.

Martin

 

[laird of Dunstan]

i bought a colour coded tow eye cover for a hyundai once,it cost £70.00 , wonder what Hymer will charge

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[DavidG58]

we are now in Blaye, north of Bordeaux on the Girande estuary, actually virtually in it there is a fresh line of driftwood only a few metres from where we are parked, just been out to look it is a few metres off that yet, but probably only about 1' below our ground level!!

very basic aire, car park only really, we and muddy in places, but it has been seriously wet recently so mean to judge on recent conditions

great location beside Citadel, water and town for bars and eating options

3 euros / 24 hours, but I think it resets at midday, but we had to pay by card, at last the Caxton has been accepted Phil @Taran_Las , very few on although we nearly bumped into a Frenchman determined to get to the aire before us. He had nearly hit us on a roundabout 1/2 mile away, thought nothing of it, followed him into town, he turned into a car park but Bev and her iPad were saying straight on, we did, he realised and raced through pulling out of the other end with inches to spare

Then he made a real biscuit of turning into the tight entrance, anybody coming here and remembering this, use your eyes, there is a nice wide obvious entrance at the other end, as he pulled in we went for the easy option which unknowingly seemed to land us right where he wanted to be. I guess I could have gone anywhere else, but did I, did I chuff, parked, levellers down with smug look at him looking elsewhere

Childish maybe, but he started it

 

[scousebird]

We were in Blaye in September, on the municipal site in the citadel, and it was wet down by the aire then.

 

[Hel999]

I know what you mean about being excited before a trip David. We are not France bound till June but I already have the books and maps out plotting our route to Brittany. We have stayed on the aire at La Mailleraye Sur Seine several times now, lovely spot and a not too long drive from Calais. There are a couple of funsters who have posted dashcam videos of the aire here and here.

On the subject of anniversaries - 35 years? pah, newleyweds! Its our 40th later this year. I would like a few days out in the van but she wants an expensive weekend in London.

Paul

am glad its not just me. We are doing our first trip to Europe in our MH in April - heading to Benidorm for a week then pottering back via West Coast of France. i am so excited and spending all my evenings researching places to see. am writing down all the aires that people recommend etc and trying to put it all together to form a route. Its as much a part of the holiday as setting off. I havent felt anticipation like this since i was a kid at Xmas lol.

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[DavidG58]

Woke up this morning to the frantic tones from Bev, telling me to get up quick, we now know why the car park was wet

This was by now on the way down, we had a tide mark about 2" up our tyres, much deeper and the whole town would have flooded, we were not in as much danger as Bev at first thought, but we were marooned as far as escape on foot at least

It had been raining most of the night and I suspect this was the result of the high river levels meeting a high tide, quite a few locals were out photographing the results so I presume they were not an every day occurrence

So we got up and left, stopped for bread just down the road, then ran into all sorts of traffic chaos we presume due to floods, either side of the main road was flooded quite deeply, including peoples gardens with cars half submerged on drives

Came to first major town Libourne which is on the Dordogne, grid lock, police closed off a major route through which goes beside the river, presume due to flooding, but it caused chaos, found our own way round, then bumped in to what we think was a planned road closure, with police coned off road and a deviation sign, so follow the lorry in front virtually all the back to where we had just been, then down the tiniest road you could imagine, signed as deviation still, a white road and small white road at that, all vehicles sent same way in both directions

Not nice, a town was almost gridlocked by 2 lorries who I am sure scraped own the side of each other to pass, I just tucked right over and let him come by, one advantage of RHD on wrong side of the road you can get absolutely as far over as you know you can, the rest is down to fate

Now stopped in a Le Clerc car park had late breakfast going shopping now to calm Bev down, the floods were bad enough, then me needing her to assist on the deviation (Is that really the right word it sounds mildly pornographic) with the added interest from TT having a near fit due to totally ignoring him, by the time we came out of the other end of the diversion things were slightly fraught in the front seats

I have let Bev go ahead to get her browsing fix in the shop, I will follow up for 2 gallon diesel tank @funflair, must remember to put fuel in it next time we stop (planned I mean of course ), I now think Bev has a link to the fuel gauge or maybe she can just see it from her side, we get plenty of prompts to stop from just over half a tank down (we being me and the Hymer) cant take all the blame myself

On our way to meet up with a long term French acquaintance we made when my mother sold her house in France, a really lovely person the local bank manager to Mum then, in France the banking system back in 2005 was still old school, we stayed at his house on a few occasions when selling but her house was empty and unheated. Looking forward to that

Then we are down to Frankie @yodeli tomorrow with the lure of both her company and a boeuf borguinian, yum yum

 

[moulin 87]

This area of France has an orange alert for flooding at the moment !!!

 

[yodeli]

@DavidG58 LOL, you mean ... Bourguignon ....

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[DavidG58]

@DavidG58 LOL, you mean ... Bourguignon ....

it sounds so much better your way x

 

[Easyliving]

Blimey! All sounds a bit scary to me what with all that water getting a bit too close for comfort then struggling down narrow lanes. Good job you are British and could keep a stiff upper lip!

Paul

 

[Neilfg]

So what sort of deviations have you managed to talk Bev into then, or is that for a different sort of forum?

Enjoying your blog, keep it up.

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[TheCaller]

That car park in Blaye had puddles in it when we were there in May last year! Only from the rain the night before in our case though. I think the campsite up in the Citadel might have been a better bet! Maybe closed at this time of year though?

Some great views from up on the walls, both inland & out over the estuary. The nice part was that despite its age & purpose as a fortification, at least 90% of it was accessible by Jane in her wheelchair.

David & Bev's next motorhome.

 

[champers]

This area of France has an orange alert for flooding at the moment !!!

That car park in Blaye had puddles in it when we were there in May last year! Only from the rain the night before in our case though. I think the campsite up in the Citadel might have been a better bet! Maybe closed at this time of year though?

Some great views from up on the walls, both inland & out over the estuary. The nice part was that despite its age & purpose as a fortification, at least 90% of it was accessible by Jane in her wheelchair.

David & Bev's next motorhome.

wow what a vehicle, pure luxury indeed .... can imagine folks heads turning with that RV lolol


Kath x

 

[DavidG58]

Hello all, back in the travelling world again, had a night with a long term French friend on Thursday night, he was delighted to see us, not so sure he was so pleased with the effects of our stay

then a night with Frankie thankfully on hard standing with a boeuf bourguignon to die for, thank you @yodeli and we took some overs for tonights meal

Had an odd journey today, decided to have a look at Carcassone, became my first sort of success with a barrier at an aire / car park, pulled up sent Bev out to retrieve a ticket, then wandered back for a look at machine see it is card only, watch a French MH make a right Horlicks of getting out so decide to bail out on our free half hour. So great success, ticket entered barrier lifted no money changed hands

In reality we now think they have a manned Caisse and you need to got there to pay to leave, unless under 1/2 hour, but it also says free fro 18:00 - 08:00, I guess the Caisse is closed and you could leave for free between those hours

Moved on into massive battle between TT Bev and me as intermediary, I lost, and I was only the middle man

We headed to Millau, to stay at an aire featured in the favourite aires thread, lovely location but only car park and to avoid possible conflict we opt not to stay, one hell of a view, but one hell of a drive up, don't do it If longer than us 8m (it will definitely hurt)

so we decided to have a look in Millau, the aire is grim as mentioned elsewhere and not worthy of the 12 euro charge, so we manage a multi point about turn and head to a site we have previously used in Millau, no joy, it and all other sites in Millau don't open till 1.4.16

So fall back plan, but it is now getting late in the day, head for Mende also from favourite aires. 50 miles away and already going dark, so do best to make up with Bev and get ipad out for nearest aire, we are now parked up on as near as a CL as you could find, photos in morning when light

8 euros with electrics, dark as anything I can remember since PV 4 nights ago

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[DavidG58]

duplicate post, dubious internet comes with great scenery

 

[DavidG58]

Last night we found via campercontact a little site pretty much like a UK CL

A tiny village Bellas, listed under Severac le Chateau, 8 euros with electric 5 without, the web site says English spoken, that is a lie, but our broken French easily got us through

Heading for Mende today, it was our destination for last night when Millau failed, but it was too far

Today is our anniversary as well, so less miles and more doing and viewing would be nice, shame the sun is not out again but at least the rain is less hard

 

[Fenman]

Happy anniversary.
Well chosen date - forget that one at your peril.

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[Anthea M]

Happy Anniversary!
Looks a lovely quiet place.

 

[yodeli]

Joyeux Anniversaire de Mariage....et

Happy Valentine Day too!
I hope you'll find a charming Auberge to treat you well!

Affectueusement à vous 2!

Frankie

 

[DavidG58]

Merci Frankie

nous et ici

Beautiful aire in the centre of Mende, appears to be free, there is a mention of 5 euros for 5 hours or 9.80 for 24 hours, but nowhere to pay, but well worth it if they do come and ask

Been down to look at water options, even that is good as although we have to pay it is in euros, no tokens or jetons to find

Water is a sore subject today, see next post

edit - see my next post Phil got in before me

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